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Written by Danny Brocklehurst, who wrote Ordinary Lies (2015-16) and last year’s In The Dark, Come Home is an in-depth study of a family torn apart by the mother’s abandonment.

And not only does Marie make what seems like the unforgivable decision to leave her family, but Greg also goes on to make some poor choices in the aftermath, such as falling into a relationship with Brenna (Kerri Quinn).

Paula Malcomson, who starred with Sean Bean in Jimmy McGovern’s powerful drama Broken last year, says Come Home came at a surprising time – she’d been musing over developing a drama on exactly the same theme.

“I’d been talking about this idea of a woman leaving her family to a friend of mine who’s a writer,” says Paula, 47.

“And then they sent me the script for Come Home and it seemed serendipitous to do it. I like the idea of trying to tell more female-driven stories. We are lacking that point of view.”

Christopher agrees that men are over-represented in drama, which is certainly a hot topic in showbiz at the moment.

“I’m busily trying to put myself out of work here, but I’m sick of blokes’ stories,” he says with a laugh.

“I know about being a bloke. What we don’t understand or examine are the lives of women.”

Yet Come Home initially seems to side with Greg. In the first episode, as he and their children face terrible feelings of rejection, Marie looks like an unsympathetic character.

“That’s the challenge,” admits Paula.

“You get a character and think, ‘How’s anybody going to like them?’ You dig in and try to tell her story, how she got to that place. Women leaving their families is more common than people care to admit, but it’s so taboo, although men do it all the time with not really terrible consequences.”

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Christopher Eccleston is tired of 'blokes' stories

Marie’s seemingly unforgivable behaviour will be explained in the second episode. Christopher sticks up for Marie, saying that viewers will come to understand her point of view and why she left her family.

“My take on Marie is she’s incredibly heroic, because what she understands is that her deep unhappiness, in the end, is going to prevent her from being a good parent,” he muses.

“She knows that in order to see these children through the trials of life, she needs to know who she is, and she needs to be happy. She had to leave to help those children.”

Come Home was filmed in Belfast, a city that Christopher raves about. And amazingly, it’s the first time that Belfast native Paula has ever filmed in her home city, having emigrated to the US nearly 30 years ago.

Since then she’s forged a career in high-profile pieces such as ER, Deadwood, Ray Donovan and The Hunger Games, in which she played the mother of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). She leapt at the chance to do her second UK-based drama in a year, along with BBC1’s Broken.

“I had been doing Ray Donovan for five years and I needed to cleanse my palate from the action-hero stuff,” muses Paula.

“I felt I needed to do work that’s not relying on violence, that’s just about human issues, and the BBC is just so tremendous.”

She still has a house in Belfast, where her parents and most of her siblings still live. “It was so meaningful to go back, because I left Belfast when things weren’t good,” continues Paula.

“So to come back and see cameras and lights and people being so proficient on the set, it felt like some kind of full circle.”

Come Home is an emotional mystery that will examine what it takes for a mother to walk out on her family and the impact it has on them. As far as Christopher is concerned, it’s a great chance to explore a man whose masculinity has been severely dented.